Spokane Police Chief Kevin Hall says city residents should be “outraged” after a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed in his home this past weekend, claiming the city has a growing problem with “gun violence” that must be addressed.
Gavin Looper was shot and killed when a man opened fire on his family’s home, and while police haven’t described a motive for the attack they say they don’t believe the shooting was random.
Gavin did not have a gun when he was killed. He also was not engaged in any criminal behavior, Hall said. His mother, Renee Rogers, claims he was merely up late around 2:40 a.m. playing video games at his father’s friend’s home. His older brother was watching a movie, and his father was in another room. Five gunshots rang out, and other people in the house fled into the street, screaming the boy had been shot.
Missoula Police Department arrested 25-year-old Glen “Dylan” Burkey in connection to the killing on Wednesday afternoon. He is awaiting extradition to Spokane. Police believe the shooting was not a random act, according to a previous news release.
“The loss of Gavin Looper is a stark reminder of the devastating impact of gun violence,” Hall said. “Our hearts go out to his family, his friends and school.”
While the suspect in Looper’s murder is 25, Hall says many shooting suspects in the city are juvenlies or adolescents.
“We are noticing an ongoing trend, not just here in Spokane, but across the country, where our offenders in gun violence are becoming increasingly more youthful,” Hall said. “This is concerning to all of us, and should be concerning to the entire community. Where these folks are getting their guns and how they’re utilizing these guns at very, very young ages is an issue.”
The most recent data from the FBI, from 2018 through 2023, shows 36% of homicides reported by the Spokane Police Department involved a handgun, and 20% of homicide offenders in the city are ages 10-19.
The same data indicates the same age group makes up 8% of the city’s victims.
Those statistics are yet another indication that none of the gun control Washington State has enacted over the past few years are having an impact on violent offenders. The state has “universal” background checks, a 10-day waiting period on gun purchases, a ban on so-called assault weapons and “large capacity” magazines, and a “red flag” law, but the state has seen a significant rise in violent crime over the past five years, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.
Between 2019 and 2023, murders in Washington increased by 87.4%, more than five times higher than the national rate of 17.2%. The murder rate in the state has risen more than 80% since 2019.
Violent crime in Washington has gone up by 19.6% over the past five years, while nationally, violent crime decreased by 4.1% in the same period.
Aggravated assault rates in Washington also climbed by 27.3%, compared to a national increase of just 5.6%.
Vehicle thefts saw a massive jump of 110.2% in Washington since 2019, much higher than the 44.9% increase seen nationwide. The vehicle theft rate in the state is more than twice the national rate, with 673.7 thefts per 100,000 people in Washington, compared to 318.7 per 100,000 nationally.
While robberies have decreased by 18.5% nationally, they have gone up by 19.8% in Washington during the same five-year period.
Even as lawmakers in Olympia target lawful gun owners with new restrictions (including several proposals we’l be detailing in another post later today), police departments across the state are struggling with a lack of funding. In Spokane, for instance, the department’s Violent Crimes Task Force and its neighborhood resource officer program have seen substantial cuts, and with the city looking at a potential $50 million budget deficit there may be more reductions in the future.
Chief Hall is right when he says that residents should be outraged over the murder of a 13-year old child, but Washingtonians of all stripes should be equally livid at a state legislature that treats lawful gun owners and our Second Amendment rights as public safety issues while failing to get tough on violent criminals and ensure adequate funding for law enforcement. “Gun violence” may be a problem, but gun control isn’t the solution.
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